The time has come to say good bye to a few games in my collection. In particular, there is one bigger game that has been in my Top 100 that is going away. So why is it and a few other games leaving my collection? What makes that Lord of the Rings game go off my shelf? I got a few games to talk about today as I make room for Kickstarters and other games that will be coming in.

There is going to be a consistent theme on a lot of these games. When I look at them, I think I have games that do something like it better, for me. But let’s not spoil too much and get into all the games I’m either selling to friends or trading into my local FLGS.

Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth

This was probably the hardest one to get rid of, but also one that I’ve been wondering about for a long time. I really like Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, but I don’t know when I’ll play it. I look at my shelf and see a lot of campaign games. Games like Solomon Kane, Reichbusters, Arkham Horror The Card Game, Star Wars: Imperial Assault and more are going to get played before it.

Plus I have Kickstarter games coming in like Etherfields, ISS Vanguard, HEL: The Last Saga, Primal, and Oathsworn. So when I look at Journeys in Middle Earth, I had to ask myself, would I play this before those. And the answer is, probably not. While the theme is one that I love, and the game was a lot of fun, I don’t see myself playing it when I have other bigger campaign games and other smaller campaign games.

This one I sold to a friend last night actually who had a group that had gone through Imperial Assault. For them it could be a good next game to play, and again he also really likes the theme as well, so it works well for him. I wish I’d played it, but I also know that I won’t.

Legacy of Dragonholt

Another campaign style game. This one is different though, it’s choose your own adventure with character stats. It’s somewhere between an RPG and a board game. I’ve played the start of it a few times and it’s fun. I think that it does a lot of things really well, but again, you saw my list of campaign games. When am I going to fit this one in?

Oddly enough, I think that it’s just a little bit too big for it’s own good. It takes a bit too much effort to get to the table. And the ruleset is just a bit too complex, though really simple, to play and then come back to in a few weeks or in a couple of months. If I want to do something that is purely choose your own adventure, I have Choose Your Own Adventure House of Danger. If I want that storybook and stat sheet, I have Loup Garou from Van Ryder games that is a one off thing.

Legends of Andor (and Expansion)

This, I think, is kind of another campaign game. Now, I say I think because I didn’t delve too far into the game. It is a fun puzzle game where you are trying to maximize what you do. However, for me, it’s just one I won’t play again. Legends of Andor has some really cool things about it though.

It does have that story element that I like to a game. And it makes you think about what you’re doing for an adventure game where there are monsters. You can’t just kill all the monsters, if you kill all of the monsters, you push up on a track. The faster you push up on that track the faster the game will end. So you only need to deal with the monsters that are a threat or are in the way. That is what really drives the puzzle aspect.

But, again, it falls into that category of a game that is pretty light, but has just enough rules that I can’t pull it off the shelf and get it to the table in minutes. And the campaign element isn’t strong to it, so I could play one off scenarios, but I’m likely just going to play the tutorial one again if I were to play it more.

Bring Your Own Book

Bring Your Own Book was one of my first Kickstarted board games. I liked it a fair amount in concept the game, just a bit less in actual game play. The idea is simple, everyone has a book and there is someone who is it. They put out a prompt and everyone has a couple of minutes to find a sentence or phrase in their book as an answer. Sounds fun and funny to have a wide variety of books.

There is one flaw in the game for me, though. It isn’t easy to find passages. Two minutes of time, or let’s say even three, isn’t that long. And while it’s funny to have a textbook and a biography and a novel as people’s books, some books just don’t work as well. And some people aren’t as fast as flipping through their books. I am not a speed reader but I can skim/read fast. Even for me it was tricky at times, or what you land is just something because you have to, not because it’s any good. I’d describe this game as clutchy, it can work, or it can stall real easily.

Boss Monster

Boss Monster is another I’d call clutchy. It is a pretty fun game with a great theme. You are building out a dungeon and are the boss monster at the end of it. Your goal is to kill as many adventurers as possible. And if you have the most of some symbols you attract adventurers.

That is where the game gets clutchy though. You don’t start out with a dungeon good enough to kill the adventurers. So they only show up in your dungeon if you have the most, so you are trying to tie with people the first few rounds. That isn’t fun, simple as that. If we started with a preseeded dungeon and we could make it bigger or better, that’d be more fun. Also some of the other mechanics aren’t what I’d call intuitive. With that said, I don’t hate the game, I just know I probably won’t play it again.

Sentinels Tactics: The Flame of Freedom

This one is pretty simple to describe why I got it and why it’s leaving. I got it on accident, I thought I was getting another Sentinels of the Multiverse expansion, it is a different game. Why is it leaving, tactics games like this one aren’t always my jam. I have not that many teams on a map games, Super Fantasy Brawl being my favorite. And I know the comparison isn’t perfect, but it’s in a category of games where I just don’t think I’ll get it to the table. It’s just a genre of games that I don’t need that many of.

Small World Underground

Finally one that might be surprising but don’t worry Small World is still in my collection. Small World Underground is basically the game thing as Small World, it just adds in a few little things, like locations to control that give you something more you can do. It is a lot of fun, so why is it leaving?

It’s leaving because I have Small World. That little extra thing to teach means I don’t want to play it as often. When we play Small World it’s generally because we can pull it off the shelf and play immediately. Nothing needs to get taught, everyone in the group knows it or needs a two sentence refresher on it. If I were to pull out Underground, we couldn’t get it to the table as fast.

Which Would You Keep?

So, in all fairness, I actually pulled back one game that was in the pile as I was talking about it. I am keeping Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, at least for right now. It’s such a simple deck building game with a theme that people like, even if they don’t like JK Rowling. And I kind of do want to push through all seven chapters just to see everything that changes. It might not last for a long time, but we’ll see, maybe I’ll stream it.

As you can see, though, there are two main things that pushed games off my shelf. Would I play them over other games in the same genre, and are they in that category of too complex but easy. I’m not sure that makes sense, the better way to put it might be that the games a pretty simple when you get down to it, but have enough rules that you need to refresh yourself to play them.

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